I'll bet most of us take it.
If you're on treatment, ask your dr about it; if you're in a trial, they may forbid it.
My hep drs said it is the only supplement worth taking & recommended it.

My hep dr. said it doesn't do much good but didn't say not to take it. i was for a while a few years ago, didn't help me.
Debbie

I took it before tx, but dr said to stop when doing treatment. (something about affecting bloodwork I think... still have memory problems) Since being here on DS, people have posted articles giving milk thistle mixed reviews on whether it helps or not. I don't take it anymore.

I started taking it twice a few years ago, but both times, I had bad hay fever symptoms, swollen eyes, sneezing, runny nose, the works. Most people do fine with it, I've heard.

I take one capsule daily. Milk thistle seed 250mg *80%silymarin
200 mg(sillybum marianum) in one large capsule. GI says its ok to take. *i haven't begun tx yet.

However, i wonder how one can tell if its helping or not?...hmmm

I took that and Alpha Lipoic Acid. Your liver loves Vit. C as well! Took all up until the day of blood work for the trial. HCV Complemtary site is a good source of information.

I think Vitamin D is the most important as well as a multivitamin. I took milk thistle when I hoped to clear spontaneously. Actually I did...but I *really* wanted to do tx. Anyway, the stuff I took didn't seem to do anything to my knowledge BUT it wasn't thistle from atop the Swiss Alps that is cultivated by Italian Monks who bless it before preparing it for human consumption in oak barrels with a paste of milk and tears from an exalted lamb then skipped down the hill by a virgin teen of either sex while humming a secret song at dusk during the Summer Solstice.

If it's not prepared with those steps then it just flat out won't work! I didn't make up the milk thistle rules but I know it's very complicated to get it just right where it is hepatoprotective. Otherwise, eat veggies.

LOL A few of you will get that.

Got it ECC. I did the cheap milk thistle. Didn't do much.

I need to copy and paste the final resting place for this herb. Will try to find my last summary.

Antioxidant yes.

Hepatoprotective No. Our bodies will not assimilate enough silymarin to protect the liver in any useful way.

This all started by injecting silymarin directly into the blood streams of rats.
It was also injected into a couple of humans dying of amanita phalloids mushroom poisoning. It not only saved their lives, but protected the liver and other organs from damage that is typical with Death cap mushroom poisoning.
The problem remains bioavailability. The latest rush is to combine silymarin with an emulsifier such as lecithin. This combo increases bioavailability but still not enough to matter.
Cooking with the whole seed shows promise.
Until someone is willing to publish blood level findings along with their product, I wont believe it. I have cooked with it, chemically extracted it myself and many other things. I also took standardized 80 % extract for several years. Around 800 mg's daily. In the midst of this, I began suffering from my first cirrhosis symptoms. Needless to say, going from hep C to portal hypertension and internal bleeding and other neat symptoms, told me nothing had been "protecting my liver".

Actually I wrote that because during my tenure here I've read so many articles with inconclusive results at best! Some have touted complex formulations that they bought prepared or that they do themselves. Shadow you inspired me there. :-)~

I have no idea of it does anything. It made me feel better for 3 months when I took it but I stopped it during tx but took all of my vitamins and other stuff. MMJ was my 3rd agent. That helped with my sides a lot. Like insanity. I mean I went insane but it was a pleasant insane. I don't know what did what. MT kind of wired me a little when I took pre-tx. Well that was a precursor to the rocket ride I had when I went to Mars and back.

Shadow, that's what my doc told me as well. I was drinking
12oz of greengoodness w/2 tbsp. of flax seed powder a day.
He said stop all that until your tx is over.

I took MT before tx and didn't notice any allergic reaction at all, but now that I'm post-tx, every time I take it I get terrible allergic sinusitis. I guess the answer is to stop taking it. :-)

MY doctor told me to continue taking it through treatment and beyond, and so i did....

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/milk-thistle

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/silymarin/NS_patient-milkthistle/DSECTION=evidence